How to Make the Most of Your Wedding Inspiration Board

Apr 21, 2016 01:49PM
● By Cate Reynolds

By Tina Byland

Your wedding board on Pinterest is beginning to fill up with beautiful photos of tablescapes, bouquets, and wedding gowns. There’s a stack of magazines (this one included) on your bedside table with dog-eared pages of your favorite styled shoots and local venues you think may be the perfect fit. And there’s probably an album of screenshots on your computer and phone of ideas you have stumbled across as you’ve come and gone. But, what do you do with all of this inspiration?

1. First things first, go into your inspiration boards with a clear purpose. Dig deep into your detailed goals for your boards. Come out on the other side with well-defined statements of what you are trying to accomplish. I am looking for a wedding color scheme. I want to find details to compliment my wedding venue. I need to figure out what my wedding party will wear. All of these statements will put you in a better starting position than a blanket statement such as I am planning my wedding.

2. After you’ve developed clear, concise goals, keep them separate. Make it easier for yourself later on by dividing your inspiration boards by goal. That way you aren’t searching through a sea of tablescapes and bridesmaids dresses to find photos of bouquets when you meet with your florist for the first time.

3. The other great part of separating your ideas into separate inspiration boards is that you can curate and update them as you go. For example, if you are dead set on a gold and turquoise wedding scheme, but then you start to find yourself eyeing gold, black, and white weddings, you will pick up on this quicker. From there, you can decide whether or not you should divide the two color schemes into separate inspiration boards, or to start deleting some ideas and colors that aren’t going to fit anymore. In a sense, this is the best way to let your ideas morph and grow (which they will).

4. As your inspiration boards fill up, you will begin to get a sense for the mood that you’re creating for your wedding day. Tune into this carefully. Is it the mood you are hoping to convey? If not, now is a great time to reevaluate your plans before making any big, expensive decisions.

5. When you feel like you’re done curating the mood and ideas for your wedding day, ask yourself why these photos, objects, colors, and styles grabbed your attention in the first place. Is it the background set in a field or at the beach? Or is it the detail and diversity of colors in the flowers that you love? Instead of replicating what you see on your inspiration boards, use them to develop your own unique style and desires.

6. It’s most important to communicate this style to anyone who is helping you plan the wedding. You obviously want to invite them to look at your wedding inspiration boards, but take it one step further and walk them through your thoughts. Let them “get in your brain” and share with them why these are the pieces of inspiration you are using.

7. Here’s one thing to keep in mind: a vignette of a dessert table you found on Pinterest looks great because of all of the small details that built up that particular wedding. The details that build up to your wedding day will never be a cloned image, mirroring what you’ve seen somewhere else. For that reason, as you begin collecting artifacts for your wedding day, choosing dresses, picking flowers, and making both large and small decisions, it’s important not to get too caught up in how they compare to your inspiration boards. As long as you remind yourself that you’re creating a mood, a look and feel, a theme for your big day, you’ll be good to go. And with that, happy planning!